Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs Garmin Epix Pro: The NYC Test Gauntlet! 

Hahaha...thanks!

Thanks - appreciate it! It's a fair bit of work in Google Earth Studio, but it looks cool in the city!

Thanks!!! Every once in a while I break out the good stuff! 😂

@@Dcrainmakeranywhere you could point to on how to view workout files on google earth, or is this a secret sauce thing?

Thanks for watching!

Thanks!!

It's something I usually briefly touch-on in reviews, but actually provide all the data linked in every review for those who want to dig deeper (you can click on any data set in any of my written reviews to access all the raw data, and the video reviews are basically just a subset of my much larger written review data set). Most of the time I find the altimeters between the top Garmin/Apple watches exceptionally close. Generally speaking, when people have accuracy issues, it's due to junk/salt/mud/gel/etc clogging up an altimeter hole. The best way to keep that from happening is simply to shower with the watch after every workout. But, if still problematic, putting a watch in a bowl of warm soapy water for about 15-20 minutes, then give it a good shake in the water, and rinse a bit. If that fails still, you can use a very soft toothbrush to try and get anything else in there out. Beyond that, it'll generally need replacement.

@@Dcrainmaker Thank you, this is a great help!

Thanks!!

Thanks!!

Indeed! Best use of a stupid-silly amount of magazines donated to the local library ever (you had to buy magazines, including kids magazines, which got you crazy amounts of points, which you could convert and redeem for British Airways flights, including the Concorde). These days, bean-counters would have been smarter. 20 years ago? Not so much. Even took my Dad along!

​@@DcrainmakerEvery aviation (me included) fan envies you 😛 I always enjoy these tests, keep them annual if possible 🙂

Hahaha…thanks!

Thanks!

@@Dcrainmaker I sometimes still think about the woman cycling over your drone. The sea wall part of that was epic too, thank you for the effort you put in.

Yup, back in October. Was an amazingly nice day for it. Just a bit behind in editing. Cheers!

I actually did some deep building tests with the COROS Pace 3 in that review. I had planned to bring out the Pace 3 in this run or the run the day after, but ended up needing data on other watches at the time.

Yeah, I've done some of that in my main reviews with mountains and stuffs. In those areas, I found the Garmin/Apple multi-band watches mostly a wash. No meaningful differences.

Same with Series 9? Thx for the answer!

Thanks! It takes a fair bit of work, but is fine for videos here and there!

I bring rain...and leaves! ;)

In this city test, Apple did better than Garmin. Likely due to the Apple Maps data alignment. Out in the mountains/etc, I haven't seen any differences between the two multiband units, a wash. For treadmill running, it's been kinda hit or miss for me on Apple paces, I've had some weird stuff lately that I didn't have previously.

In October, a wee bit behind on editing these days. Cheers!

Any garmin watch will have better battery than an Apple Watch

I'm not sure it'd add much battery-wise. For example, we don't see Garmin add it on AMOLED models. Rather, it tends to do better with slower-burning MIP-based models that are specifically designed for weeks/months of battery. Even Garmin's Fenix series with solar is kinda blah when it comes to actual gains (whereas their Instinct series is legit huge in gains with Solar).

Native workout app. I just find that on the whole, Apple has done a better job than most 3rd party apps in ensuring data quality/accuract there.

Yup, they're all here: analyze.dcrainmaker.com/#/public/81fbd705-62f2-4f36-52ba-67d074f39511

@@Dcrainmaker Thank you, Ray. 🙏🏻

The first section was along either sidewalk, the second section was down the middle - mostly to show it didn't matter. The results were the same. What mattered was the height of the buildings. Last year I did a massive section from the tip of Manhatten - and ultimately, the hardest section (year after year) is that bit down Broadway. Everything else is honestly easy these days: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-M5uRJKCxaiA.html

Nevermind. I just heard the part where you said "the GoPro" lol

Yup, Hero 12 for this, as it was before the Ace Pro came out.

@@Dcrainmaker ahhhh ok ok. I'll still be waiting for your AcePro video 👀 Also..... When you are not running test, which fitness watch is your actual "GO-TO" daily driver? I am an Enduro 2 watch user with the HRM Plus and as a combo I am in love. Like you I would have Strava, Garmin connect and relive for playback to my activities and I find it super accurate (at least I think it is) when I zoom in to the sections where I might change from l e lane to another or maybe I'll walk around the other side of a light pole and it shows those small changes in my workouts. But.....what watch is your ACTUAL "daily driver"?

I prefer the Epix series, but, my wife prefers her Fenix series. To each their own!

@@Dcrainmaker I have both with me at work and I keep putting on the MIP Fenix. I like how much more subdued it is and feels more like a watch. I also like the white background, it gives me old game boy or Rolex vibes. Backlight colors aren’t great but who cares? It’s an outdoor watch so the ambient lighting of the fenix does great. Plus battery life. To have always on with epix you drop that battery life to 7-8 days compared to 31 on fenix.

I also have the Ultra 2 on the left. The Epix Pro 51 at the right arm. I never ever would go back to a Fenix with the MIP Display.

I normally use the DCR Analyzer (www.dcrainmaker.com/analyze) - but for this video I broke out the fancy silverware, and used Google Earth Studio. It takes about 30x longer, but here and there I do it.

@@Dcrainmaker thanks, I appreciate it. It’s cool to see the info like that.

October, just a bit behind in editing.

Haha...no, just a bit behind in editing.

Zero. Here's last year's test: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-M5uRJKCxaiA.html

Yeah, all of the phone communication bands are fully cross-compatible these days. But unfortunately, none of the watch bands are. :( Maybe one day...

At $100/EUR, it's a solid deal for sure. But, at the same time, Wahoo has confirmed there will be no future RIVAL, and thus you'd want to buy it for the features it has today, not for the future.

Better actually. You don’t want it over the wrist bone, that’s the worst possible spot.

@@Dcrainmaker Thank you!

And don’t forget sleep tracking on the Garmins is bad as well and on wrist heart rate even more worse

As of the Series 8 (and 9), and the Apple Watch Ultra 1/2, and the 2nd gen Apple Watch SE, Apple no longer leverages the phone in any GPS offloading, it's all in-watch. However, what Apple does leverage is the maps in GPS accuracy.

@@Dcrainmaker didn't know that! I'm still on a series 6. i'm charging it 2x a day 🤣it's time to upgrade. quick question / hot take - would you take the current gen Zwift Hub at retail ( $599 ) , or a essentially unused ( only 2x ) Garmin TacX Neo 2T for $500 from a friend? they're both an upgrade from my old-school classic fluid trainer, but i'm in analysis paralysis. I have almost all Garmin devices ( aside from the apple watch ) and I do use Zwift 4-5x a week. What do you think?

There is the OG epix, then the Epix gen 2 then the Epix gen 2 pro or pro gen 2. The pro is only gen 2.

Correct, Epix Pro is basically the 2nd version of Epix. Confusing AF, I agree. Here's a whole post I just wrote about this/product cycles/etc...: www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/12/garmin-fenix7-epix-release-history-explained.html

worth mentioning chasethesummit was doing a test in low power mode where it only takes a gps recording every few minutes. unless i’ve missed it i haven’t seen this in normal recording modes.

IIRC Chasethesummit was testing in low power mode. The sampling was very low so it heavily rely on the Apple Maps.

Why is that cheating? The goal of gps while running is to provide continuous coordinates. Using maps data to filter out coordinates that aren’t realistic isn’t faking the accuracy. I am sure both systems have thresholds for coordinates that are outliers, using a map just enhances and makes that threshold more realistic.

In general most of the time Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs Garmin Epix Pro are a wash for GPS accuracy (especially in mountains/trails/etc...). It appears though for more city-type super dense environments, Apple's abiltiy to leverage mapping as a cross-verification tool, is helping them.

@@DcrainmakerIs that kind of cheating on Apple’s part though? They assume you’ll stay on the road so they track that. It’s not really a pure GPS vs GPS test.

@@paulc1978by that logic using additional bands and satellites would be cheating. As long as he’s running on the watch alone with no additional paired device, then it’s just another tool Apple leverages for greater accuracy. IF I wanted a more accurate watch for city life running, I’m not going to say “Apple is technically cheating”. If the fight is unfair bc Apple has more technology and money, that’s just the nature of the beast, but it’s a perfectly legitimate win.

@@seanlinehan1136That’s not true at all. This is like clicking the route to a map not using GPS at all. It seems to not be using GPS technology in that sense.

@@paulc1978 In places where you can’t run off the road or trail, why wouldn’t you want the greater accuracy provided by the map? In the mountains or woods Ray said the pure GPS results are similar.

Btw. I'm really jealous of that concorde trip! :D

Fun tidbit: It was actually rendered at 30FPS...but then some of the sections I talked to long, and had to slow it down about 50% or so. Blah. Re-doing all my timings would have taken forever, since the export of the rendered file from Google took about 2 hours. :-/

Yeah, the Google Earth bits are fun/cool, but take a silly-long amount of time. It's one of those things that seems like it'd be easy to do, but becomes an avalanche of small items that takes what was a 30-second task and makes it many many hours. Still, for some videos it's fun to break out!

@@Dcrainmaker whenever I'm doing troubleshooting or implementing for tech, I figure my best estimate, then triple the effort, maybe in you case with GE, it's 30x

You can’t start your car unlock your house door, answer a phone call and a multitude of other functions with a garmin. Not everyone is running for 24hrs.

@@DaedcicarI always carry my phone anyway so that doesn’t matter. Also, you can answer a call on your Garmin.

​@@Daedcicar But you can use a Garmin on iPhone and Android. Not everyone uses iPhone.

​@@Daedcicar How did we get to a point where getting a phone out of your pocket is such a huge problem?🤦

@icarusc44 but you can own a Garmin without fear of the sales of the device being banned by the government for stealing patents like the current generation of apple watches